National issues dominated the conversation among residents and business people in Coventry which is facing a huge swing to Reform UK next month
A residential street in Coundon, an area of Coventry projected to be won by Reform UK in the May local elections(Image: Google Street View)
Coventry voters have spoken out in one of the three city wards predicted for a Reform UK takeover at the May 7 local elections.
Projections show Reform taking all three seats in Sherbourne, Binley & Willenhall, and Bablake.
Nigel Farage’s party is also touted to win two of the three available councillor seats in Whoberley, Woodlands, Cheylesmore, Wyken, and Tile Hill & Canley. The overall result is expected to see Reform UK become the majority party on Coventry City Council, though it may not get enough seats for total control of the authority.
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The Local Democracy Reporting Service went out to chat to people in Sherbourne ward to get their views on a potential Reform wipeout in the council elections, the issues they think will influence voters and what needs tackling in the local area by whoever gets into power.
Sherbourne ward includes Spon End and a large part of Coundon. It currently has one Reform UK councillor and two Labour members.
A local estate agent who didn’t want to be named said she had not taken part in any elections for a while and needed to do some research to decide who to vote for on May 7, or whether to even bother voting at all.
She said: “There are so many false promises from these parties, it’s a struggle to believe what they all say.
“I’d be a bit surprised if this ward was taken over by Reform but I don’t think Labour are doing enough. Keir Starmer said he would stop people coming into this country, but it hasn’t happened. And all these people on benefits, he said he’d knuckle down on that but hasn’t.
“We get people coming in to enquire about renting and you see from their finances they’re often on benefits of around £3,500 a month. Holidays to Florida or wherever three times a year, all while they choose not to work. You can see why they don’t bother to work and Labour doesn’t seem to be doing anything about it.
“We have a lot of issues locally that need tackling, like traffic and potholes. Council tax has gone up, everything has gone up. And the area no longer has that community feeling.
“As estate agents, we’ve seen the effects of what Labour is doing on the property market, such as the increase in stamp duty meaning people now have to find a lot of extra money and some just can’t afford it. They just seem to keep punishing businesses and working people.”
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A local businessman who was sat in Cafe 455, in a row of shops on Holyhead Road, said: “Reform UK want to win purely on the basis of immigration and they probably will, but it’s not clear what their policies are on the economy or climate change.
“As a local man, my main concern is more how they will address things here like litter, fly-tipping, potholes, the rising costs businesses are facing and local NHS waiting lists.
“But it’s all going to be about immigration and that’s where our problem lies with Reform. It’s going to be another Brexit. Not thought out, rushed into, then everything backfires.
“The country is in turmoil with the effects of the Iran war, oil prices and other issues, but Reform doesn’t seem to have economic policies in place to deal with that. It’s fair to say I will not be voting for Reform UK at these local elections.”
At local pub The Brooklands, in Kingsbury Road, Coundon, one customer said they thought the ongoing Mandelson scandal would damage Labour support at local level in the May elections. Keir Starmer is still facing tough questions over his future as Prime Minister despite admitting he should not have appointed Lord Mandelson as US Ambassador and would never have done so if he’d known he had failed the vetting process.
A group of drinkers at one table had mixed views over the elections but there was no enthusiasm shown towards Labour. One said she’d be voting for Reform, another wasn’t planning to vote at all, and two others were undecided.
One woman in the group, who was unsure about voting but said she would consider the options, said: “Labour say they’re the party of working people but they aren’t. They’re all multimillionaires so they know nothing about ordinary people and their struggles.”
She was surprised the ward faced a Reform UK takeover and said: “The problem with people voting Reform just to stop the small boats and cut immigration is that whoever is in power will find their hands tied by the European Court of Human Rights, so they can’t just do things straight away, and we don’t have a land border you can easily patrol, it’s a coastline.
When asked what local issues needed dealing with in Coventry, she added: “Too much student accommodation and too many cheap shops. Coventry used to be a beautiful city but when they rebuilt it after the war they turned it into a concrete jungle. Other cities like Chichester and many places over in Europe were rebuilt to preserve the original character.
“I’m not sure how all these new regeneration schemes will turn out, all we can see at the moment is that they’re demolishing huge areas of the city centre but they’ve saved Coventry Market at least.”
Another member of the group was more cynical: “They say Coventry council are finishing off what Hitler started [with the Blitz].”
She added: “I won’t be voting, I have no faith in any of the parties. They make all these promises to do this and that but they find ways of getting out of it somehow. If we had someone who made promises and stuck to them, then I’d vote for them.”
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